This site is for mothers of kids in the U.S. Navy and for Moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.
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Choose your Username. For the privacy and safety of you and/or your sailor, NO LAST NAMES ARE ALLOWED, even if your last name differs from that of your sailor (please make sure your URL address does not include your last name either). Also, please do not include your email address in your user name. Go to "Settings" above to set your Username. While there, complete your Profile so you can post and share photos and videos of your Sailor and share stories with other moms!
Make sure to read our Community Guidelines and this Navy Operations Security (OPSEC) checklist - loose lips sink ships!
Join groups! Browse for groups for your PIR date, your sailor's occupational specialty, "A" school, assigned ship, homeport city, your own city or state, and a myriad of other interests. Jump in and introduce yourself! Start making friends that can last a lifetime.
Link to Navy Speak - Navy Terms & Acronyms: Navy Speak
All Hands Magazine's full length documentary "Making a Sailor": This video follows four recruits through Boot Camp in the spring of 2018 who were assigned to DIV 229, an integrated division, which had PIR on 05/25/2018.
Boot Camp: Making a Sailor (Full Length Documentary - 2018)
Boot Camp: Behind the Scenes at RTC
...and visit Navy.com - America's Navy and Navy.mil also Navy Live - The Official Blog of the Navy to learn more.
Always keep Navy Operations Security in mind. In the Navy, it's essential to remember that "loose lips sink ships." OPSEC is everyone's responsibility.
DON'T post critical information including future destinations or ports of call; future operations, exercises or missions; deployment or homecoming dates.
DO be smart, use your head, always think OPSEC when using texts, email, phone, and social media, and watch this video: "Importance of Navy OPSEC."
Follow this link for OPSEC Guidelines:
**UPDATE as of 11/10/2022 PIR vaccination is no longer required.
FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR UP TO DATE INFO:
RESUMING LIVE PIR - 8/13/2021
Please note! Changes to this guide happened in October 2017. Tickets are now issued for all guests, and all guests must have a ticket to enter base. A separate parking pass is no longer needed to drive on to base for parking.
Please see changes to attending PIR in the PAGES column. The PAGES are located under the member icons on the right side.
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Click here to learn common Navy terms and acronyms! (Hint: When you can speak an entire sentence using only acronyms and one verb, you're truly a Navy mom.)
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Visite esta página para explorar en su idioma las oportunidades de educación y carreras para sus hijos en el Navy. Navy.com
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KimS - goin' on 11 weeks now, right? NOW we know why it's called the Silent Service. :-) We're guessing it could be very soon but could be very wrong. Que sera sera.....
Our oldest is the sailor, his younger brother is an Airman. Both on their first tour of duty and both have reenlisted for additional 2 years. Their two sisters sometimes keep us more informed of their activites than the boys do themselves. :-) Ah yes, the joys of parenting, both normal and military. Sons have experienced very different training and deployment issues in the USN vs the USAF. As you say ... one giant learning experience accompanied with lots of pride. Last time we could hear from sailor was when he met up with our Airman in Japan on Mothers Day weekend.
Kevsmom93 I don't know much at all what he'll be up to while waiting for the boat. Sometimes I think they may actually send him to the next port of call, if possible, but I simply don't know. It's very likely you're not getting a lot of info from son because no one can give HIM much detail at this point. Seems like there are always more questions than answers in the first couple years. When the boat returns, the crew is on stand down for about 30? days, I believe. Work continues but some take vacation leave for part of that time. My understanding is that work hours are sporadic but could be a bit intense if necessary. Relative to the deployment pace, they will likely not seem intense, however.
Be sure your son gets sleep now because it is at a premium whenever the sailors are on underways (short trips) or deployments. :-) You're correct regarding the numbering of e-mails while on deployment. They "get" our e-mails whenever space/time/security allows. They'll be read & edited (if necessary) prior to being passed along to the crew. You'll get a copy of what was forwarded if yours had to be edited. Follow the guidelines from the deployment manual that son receives and/or ombudsman passes along. I don't think we ever heard any real significant news from ombudsman until a couple weeks before the February deployment. (Mostly social events prior to that.) While son is deployed, our future daughter-in-law is learning a bit more Facebooking with a couple of GF's or wives she met while visiting son at NNPTC and/or Pearl Harbor.
Son landed in PH in Sept and, if I recall, we never learned his NPO address (for deployment) until maybe Dec. or Jan. Look up "half-way box" and any other info that you can find regarding customs that the sailors experience while deployed. Seems like when we heard about them from the ombudsman, we had to act really fast to make sure our son wasn't left out (or else we missed something somewhere).
Don't know how much is actually still relevant for those on the Columbus, but I've found the THIS LINK extremely informative as the parent of a new submariner.
Another tip I'd pass along to your son is to continue studying hard and earn his qualifications as quickly as he can. Sailors that do that will stand out and be noticed sooner than later -- if they keep themselves out of trouble in the R & R department.
Finally, don't be surprised by the lack of info. All you can do is ask the questions and see if he knows the answers. I don't know how I'd personally handle all the "not knowing" as a sailor myself. It would drive me nuts until I simply accepted it as the way of life in the military. It's become sort of a challenge for us to think of questions that he might know the answers to so we're not just reinforcing in his mind all the things that he still doesn't know. :-)
Hi Kevsmom93! As mentioned earlier, I don't check this site very often. I was unable (and don't really wish to) access the Facebook site that the ombudsman uses in her e-mail signature. My experience with our other son (in the USAF) when he was in AF boot camp last summer was that the FB sites are far less cautious about OPSEC issues. To my knowledge, a sailor is supposed to include the names of people they want contacted by the ombudsman on one of the zillion forms they're supposed to fill out at some point. I really don't know how much flexibility the ombudsman has in terms of adding others to the list. I'm thinking very little, quite frankly. Much of ombudsman e-mail (1-2x monthly) pertains mostly to those living in on/near the base.
FWIW, contact with our son is sporadic at best as Kim S mentioned. At this point, it's kind of like boot camp ... you have to figure no news is good news. I feel far worse for the newer spouses/fiances than for us parents, though.
I think/hope that, after this first long term deployment, we'll be able to talk long enough to our sailors that we'll have a better idea of what to expect next time. I know on this first time out the first timers were probably more anxious about getting everything "right" for themselves and their superiors more so than for "the folks back home."
We just keep our e-mails to him short, sweet, and upbeat and try to keep from getting them edited and chopped by the "reviewers" that read them first. :-) Our guys are in good hands and have been trained (and are being trained) for success!
KimS -- Check your INBOX for a message from me regarding contact with the ombudsman.
KimS - Doesn't look like it's very active. Just joined the group ourselves a few weeks back. We don't check N4M very often these days and only occasionally check the e-mail account it's linked to. Jamie (ombusdman) sent the last message out on 6/9. Don't know if I should post her eddress here but you should be able to contact her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/usscolumbusombudsman
Any new/ current moms with sons on the Columbus. My son just got his assignment on Oct 30, 2012. This is his first assignment. I would love to find mom's with sons on the Columbus out of Pearl Harbor.
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